How to share itunes library with multiple users, and keep organised

Question

Hi,
I'm using iTunes (v12) on Windows 7 and am trying to set myself up so that multiple users on this PC are sharing the same library. I've followed the guidance mentioned on a couple of other threads, and put the library in the Users\Public\Music location, and on each user account have pointed iTunes to this location. This has worked OK, as both users can see all the music.
However, problems arise when User A deletes a couple of files (duplicates for example) - User B logs in, and the song is still listed in the library, but with an alert stating the original file cannot be located. They then have to go through the library and also delete these entries. Equally, if User B adds some music files (as opposed to iTunes downloads), they are not visible to User A until they "Add file to library..."
Are there any further steps that I can take to keep both users views of the library identical, without manual intervention by the second user whenever the first makes a change?
Cheers,
Matt

Answer 1

The way you've set it up each user has a distinct library, but is accessing a common set of media files and folders.  To accomplish what you want, you need to have a complete iTunes library (database + media) in a common location - typically this would be C:\Users\Public\Music\iTunes.  See turingtest2's notes on Make a split library portable for the steps that may be needed to bring your library into a suitable structure.  Based on your description, you'll need to select one user's library (C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl) to act as the shared "master" and move this to the Public folders.
Then, for each user, hold down SHIFT while starting iTunes - when you get this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to C:\Users\Public\Music\iTunes, select the iTunes Library.itl file you'll find there, and click Open (you'll only need to do this once for each user account).
Note, though, that iTunes is inherently a single-user application - any attempts to run iTunes at the same time will cause errors (and, in the worst case, possible corruption).  For this reason, its a good idea to disable fast user switching in Windows so that only one user can be logged in, and running iTunes, at the same time.